Some saints march in for Boston's birthday bash
Once the Berklee College of Music student got the rhythmic tap of the bass drum, New Orleans saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. and a nephew, Christian Scott, began singing about wading.
The song, ''Shallow Water," has been playing in his head, Harrison said, since Hurricane Katrina robbed him of a home more than a month ago.
''It's about being in deep water," Harrison said, before he started singing outside the Pour House on Boylston Street yesterday afternoon. ''But you call it shallow water because you can handle it."
Berklee College invited Harrison to Boston yesterday to take part in the city's 375th birthday parade. He led a 14-piece Mardi Gras-style band called the New Orleans Resurrection Brass Band. It was comprised of Berklee alumni, faculty, and students. Berklee, known nationally for its emphasis on jazz, has created a special fund so New Orleans musicians can teach at the college this year.
The fund, the creation of which was announced on Friday, has received $50,000 in donations -- enough to fund the visits of eight musicians. Harrison, who attended Berklee in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and who was playing in clubs before the hurricane, will teach for two weeks in October.
''I think this fund is a great thing," Harrison said. ''It gives musicians a job."
The Berklee president, Roger Brown, said the fund was the way the college could help. ''Berklee is a jazz-oriented school," he said, ''and New Orleans is the birthplace of what our school is about."
And yesterday's parade, he said, provided the best opportunity to let the public know about the fund to aid the musicians.
The parade, which started at Copley Square and ended at City Hall Plaza, was the grand finale of the city's 375th birthday celebration, which began in May. It featured groups that marched in various neighborhood parades throughout the summer, ultimately pulling together more than a dozen floats, 20 marching bands, and 70 community groups. It included high school marching bands from such suburban towns as Everett and Wilmington.
The day's festivities culminated with what Mayor Thomas M. Menino's office described as the largest fireworks display ever shown in Boston Harbor.
Harrison said it felt so good to be in Boston again that he might look for a place here for him and his wife, Mary, and their 14-year-old daughter, Victoria, until it's safe to return to New Orleans. Last time he heard, he said, the water level at his home was 10 feet high.
Harrison and his family fled hours before the full force of Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. They got one of the last rooms at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, across from New Orleans City Hall. The storm grew ferocious, blowing out the hotel's windows, and they had to leave their room and stay in the ballroom.
A few days later, he and his family and a couple of others piled into an Infiniti and drove through water that rose up to the windows.
''I kept saying, 'I know the car is going to stop,' " Harrison said. ''By the grace of God, we made it out of there."
They are now staying in Baton Rouge, and other musicians from New Orleans are scattered across the country. Harrison said musicians will migrate back when New Orleans is ready for them.
The experience, he said, could add to the texture of the music scene, with artists drawing on the hurricane and its aftermath as inspiration for new songs.
''Over time, it will be better, but it will be a difficult road," he said. 